BBVA NBA Amex Maximizing 5 Percent Back
Next week is the beginning of the end of the NBA season. The NBA Finals will begin and while that may not be important to many non-sports fans, many of you are no doubt excited. That is because it means we get two full weeks of 5% cashback with our BBVA Compass NBA credit cards. Yum!!!!!!!!!!!!
In case you aren’t familiar with the card, it earns 5% cashback during the NBA All Star Weekend and the two weeks of the NBA Finals. Specifically, this year the 5% cashback will be earned from June 2, 2016 through June 16, 2016. Unfortunately it is no longer possible to apply for this card online, but hopefully many of you were able to get it during the $200 bonus offer I covered last year.
Ideas for Maximizing 5% Earning
In preparation for this momentous occasion, I began putting off paying some bills that had flexibility. Of course bills with a firm due date are hard to work with, but if you have the NBA card and can pay a bill on June 2nd then do it.
For example my car registration is coming due. I would normally pay it somewhat early, but I’ll wait until almost the end, so I can earn 5% back. I also have other recurring payments that I have “negotiated” to pay on June 2nd or shortly thereafter.
Doctor of Credit has a good list of how to maximize this 5% earning. Among the suggestions are:
- Pay bills – You can even use payment services that charge 2.5% since you will be coming out ahead.)
- Pay taxes – For self employed persons making estimated payments.
- Fund a bank account – You can never have enough of those.
- Donate to Charity
- Maximize Amex Offers – Since this is an Amex card, you can load Amex Offers to it.
- Buy merchant gift cards to use later or Visa/MC gift cards to load to prepaid cards. (If you still have that option.)
The Gravy Train is Ending
Unfortunately this will be the last 5% period where this card is unrestricted. Beginning July 1, 2016 you will be limited to earning 5% on $5,000 in purchases per special period. This means that you can earn $250 in cashback during NBA All Star Weekend and $250 during the NBA Finals. This definitely hurts, but considering this card has no annual fee, it is still quite generous.
Conclusion
If you have the BBVA Compass NBA Amex then get ready for two weeks of fun. Cancel your vacation, call in sick to work and just go crazy spending. Or at the very least, you can make sure you earn back top dollar for expenses you will already be paying. I’ll be doing that and more. Have fun!
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Since this is a third party amex card, I’m not sure this can be used to fund newly opened bank accounts since most accept Visa or MC only. If there’s a bank that’ll accept amex to fund new accounts, I’d like to know what it is or if there’s several, that’ll be great!
On the topic of loading cards, KATE and the moneycenter reps at multiple WMs have rejected two metabank vgcs on me this week for gobank. Anyone else having that issue?
I’d like to see field reports on how much spending starts the chargebacks, how much starts the account closure process, and how much gives you a free 20-year trip to Siberia.
Well last year there were reports of cards being locked up with fraud alerts, etc and I wouldn’t be surprised to see that happen again. In other words, many people shouldn’t be able to go too crazy. Siberia doesn’t seem likely, but either way BBVA has limited their exposure going forward.
Amex offers?
You need to link the card to a Twitter or Facebook account. Here is the Twitter page where it explains the process. https://sync.americanexpress.com/twitter/Index
After it is synced you can tweet out the hashtags for offers to load them on the card.
How do I load America offers?
Nice timing for June quarterly estimated tax payments.
Ah taxes! 🙂 Yes, I will definitely be using my card for that. 🙁